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Cameras fascinate me, especially unusual and quirky ones, so what better than a camera that you get to build yourself. I ordered this off Amazon, and when it arrived it was just a collection of bits packed carefully in polystyrene, with the instruction manual, a neck lanyard and a magnetic screwdriver which turned out to be essential. there are some screws that would have been impossible to put in place without it.

It was interesting putting together especially the trigger mechanism which required some very delicate adjustments to get it to work just so. I have no idea what the shutter speed is on this little camera except the instruction manual recommends using this camera with 100ISO film in sunny conditions, (the manual also recommends not standing on roads or at the edge of cliffs while taking photos. It’s surprisingly concerned with the safety of its users).

Yes it suffers from light seepage. Unfortunately there’s a part that clips on permanently that means I can’t get back into the camera’s bowels to fix the issue. Of course this means when I get the films developed I’ve ended up distressing the processing people despite warning them that any aberrations on the images are entirely the fault of my camera. It’s also difficult to wind on the film, so double exposures are also something of an issue as is camera-shake, but to be honest I’m not that bothered. The results are interestingly strange and atmospheric, and extremely unpredictable.